1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a safety lancet, and more particularly, to a safety lancet for doubly preventing reuse thereof, which is fundamentally prevented from being reused for obtaining blood, thereby preventing transmission of diseases.
2. Description of the Related Art
Lancets are used to conveniently take blood from patients to be variously treated in a hospital. For example, a lancet may be inserted into a subcutaneous tissue of a finger or toe to take a small amount of blood from a capillary vessel, and the taken blood may be used to measure a patient's blood sugar, cholesterol, or triglycerides (TG) by using a hemanalysis device.
However, typical lancets may be reused just by washing or sterilizing the lancets after taking blood. Accordingly, various diseases such as AIDS or hepatitis may be transmitted through a patient's blood, which causes serious medical accidents.
Thus, safety lancets should be used only once to prevent such transmission of diseases. However, typical safety lancets can be reused through a simple disassembly and assembly process.
Korean Patent Registration No. 971171 discloses a safety lancet for preventing reuse as illustrated in FIG. 30.
Such a typical safety lancet includes: an upper case 1 and a lower case 2, which form an inner space having a certain size; a movable block 3 disposed within the inner space and having a spring 6; and a guide 4 as a trigger disposed at the rear end thereof.
An operation of the safety lancet for taking blood is as follows. When an outer pressing plate 5 is pressed by a finger, pressing force is transmitted to the lower part of the guide 4 through the outer pressing plate 5 so as to release a hook of the movable block 3. At this point, the movable block 3 is moved forward by elastic force of the spring 6, and a lancet needle 7 disposed at the front end of the movable block 3 is quickly inserted into a skin and is removed therefrom. A protective cap 8 encloses the lancet needle 7 before the safety lancet is used.
Since the guide 4 functioning as a trigger is exposed out of the safety lancet, when a user accidentally presses the outer pressing plate 5, the movable block 3 may be discharged, which is dangerous.
In addition, after the movable block 3 is discharged, the movable block 3 may be reloaded by inserting a long rod through a front through hole, or disassembling and assembling the safety lancet, whereby the safety lancet may be intentionally reused.
Furthermore, the safety lancet is required to reduce a pain caused when the lancet needle 7 is inserted into a skin. To this end, not only the performance or diameter of a needle is adjusted, but also the movable block 3 is required to be straightly discharged under a uniform condition, without shaking or vibration caused by the spring 6.